Eat 17 Bacon Jam

In September 2012, bistro Eat 17 began preserving its signature burger topping and selling it to restaurant customers. The restaurant team wanted to explore the wider market potential for the product and needed to attract national distributers and supermarket multiples to make it available across the UK.

Old Bacon Jam packaging (above).

Eat 17 Bacon Jam is an unfamiliar product, its tiny jar makes it hard to stand out, and its speciality ingredients command a premium price. A redesign was required to position it as a high quality, artisan product, and help both trade buyers and end consumers to understand it. Its versatility was also an opportunity to compete in multiple markets: in delis and supermarkets, and as an ingredient, a condiment and even a gift product.

Another opportunity would be the development of variant flavours. The design needed to help build the brand for the future.

The solution was a clever combination of messaging and distinctive graphics that works on both a functional and an emotional level. The design focuses on the product’s roots, its quality, and the quirkiness of a preserve that contains meat. Presentation materials for the trade audience were as important as the label design to tell the story.

Designs were created in time for a pitch to Tesco, which subsequently listed the product. Further orders were established from Booths Supermarkets and Waitrose, and orders increased two-fold from farm shop distributer Cotswold Fayre. In the press, Eat 17 Bacon Jam was featured as a desirable gift product, featured by Stylist magazine and Vogue.

As a result, there was a 250% uplift in sales in the 10 months following the launch of the new designs, compared to the previous 10 months of trading. Turnover increased by £66,000 and the project represented a return on investment of 120%, with sales continuing to soar.

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